Table of content

Chapter 1

Abstract

1.1. Introduction
1.2. Review Of The SIOP Model
1.3. Effectiveness Factors
1.3.1. An Integrated And Comprehensible Teaching Process
1.3.2. Content and language are at the heart of the SIOP model.
1.3.3. Student’s Native Language Supports The Learning Process
1.3.4. Conclusion

Chapter 2

2.1 SIOP Challenges

2.1.1 Introduction
2.1.2 The SIOP Model Implementation
2.1.3 The SIOP Model Is Time And Money Consuming
2.1.4 Teacher’s Attitude Towards SIOP
2.1.5 Conclusion
2.2 The Case Study
2.2.1 Moroccan High Schoolteachers And SIOP Model
 2.2.2 Methodology
2.2.3 Results
2.2.4 Analysis
2.2.5 Conclusion
2.3 Conclusion

Table of content

1. Abstract
2. Introduction
3. Review Of The SIOP Model
4. Effectiveness Factors
4.1 An Integrated And Comprehensible Teaching Process
4.2 Content and language are at the heart of the SIOP model.
4.3 Student’s Native Language Supports The Learning Process
4.4 Conclusion

5. SIOP Challenges
5.1 Introduction
5.2 The SIOP Model Implementation
5.3 The SIOP Model Is Time And Money Consuming
5.4 Teacher’s Attitude Towards SIOP
5.5 Conclusion
6. The Case Study

6.1 Moroccan High Schoolteachers And SIOP Model

6.2 Methodology
6.3 Results
6.4 Analysis
6.5 Conclusion
7. Conclusion

1 abstract

2 introduction

3 review of the SIOP

5. Effectiveness factors

1 An integrated and comprehensive teaching process

One of the key effectiveness factors of the SIOP model is the beforehand preparation.
The teacher anticipates all the teaching process steps to make sure the lesson is well delivered.
The importance of this stage relays in the clarity it provides to the lesson. Aware of his
students’ prior knowledge, the teacher plans for a set of tasks that contribute to the success of
the delivery process. Thoughtful planning leads to effective teaching. (Echvarria,Vogt , &
Short, 2010).

First of all, planning a set of objectives in both content and language is the step that
will definitely put the teacher on the right path to a successful lesson planning. If defined
clearly, these objectives can lead the teacher smoothly to the following parts of the lesson
planning. He knows what is expected of his lesson and plans for all the tasks that will
contribute in the fulfillment of these expectations and objectives. Whether it is building
background or using fit strategies and activities which will ensure that the content and
language objectives are met.

For these objectives to be met the content of the lesson must be adapted to the students
level. When planning a lesson around content concepts, consider the following: (1) the
students’ first language (L1) literacy, (2) their second language (L2) proficiency, (3) their
reading ability, (4) the cultural and age appropriateness of the L2 materials, (5) the difficulty
level of the material to be read (Gunderson, 1999, P.21).For the teacher to match the lesson
plan to the ELs, he must perform a task analysis, a process in which (he) carefully analyze the
requisite knowledge a student must possess to understand what is being taught.
(Echvarria,Vogt , & Short, 2010).In order to bridge the gap between what he knows and what
he must know to grasp the content concepts, the sheltered instruction SI teacher must use a
number of supplementary materials.

The supplementary materials range from a number of activities to a set of techniques

that provide the teacher with different ways to communicate the information in a non
traditional method. This step if well prepared will provide the ELLs with new ways to both
receive the knowledge and communicate it in non linguistic channels becausethey do require
special accommodation to make instruction more understandable (Echvarria,Vogt , & Short,
2010). There is a range of techniques that can be used depending on the lesson’s topic.
Techniques such as some pictures, objects, graphic organizer, or some hands on activities are
proved to be effective in reaching the ELLS in a more relevant manner.

The teachers plan must take into consideration all the components that will contribute
in the fulfillment of the planned objectives. A number of strategies that will occur in the
teaching process must be anticipated and planned for in the mere objective for the students to
develop independence in self-regulation through practice with peer-assisted and student-
centered strategies (Echvarria,Vogt , & Short, 2010). Learning strategies such as
metacognitive, cognitive, and social affective are self-regulating strategies that improves
students learning and reading, scaffolding techniques such as verbal and instructional assist
the students in the learning process to bring them closer to new concepts until they reach
higher language proficiency, and high-order questioning that promote critical thinking are
what the students need to develop autonomy in his learning.

This teaching process plan is not an effective one until the teacher implements it by
providing the students with ample opportunities for interaction. Discussing the content
concepts in structured activities ensure the fulfillment of not only the curriculum objectives
but also the language proficiency. Though it is challenging for teachers to meet the lesson’s
objectives and in the same time provide the students with the sufficient amount of time to
interaction, the SI teacher, thanks to the preliminary planning, can supply a set of activities to
overcome this obstacle. Such activities, if used properly, make it possible for students to get
accustomed to using academic English and to clarify curriculum key concepts. It is not the
quantity of exposures to English that affects learning but the quality of exposures, too (Wong-
Fillmoreand Valadez, 1986).

Putting their new knowledge to practice is one of the many ways that sets the seal on
the English quality exposure. Second language acquisition research has shown repeatedly that
for an individual to develop a high level of proficiency in a new language, he or she must
have opportunities not only for comprehensive input (Krashen, 1985) but also targeted output
(Swain, 1985). Therefore, activities that assist students to achieve higher levels of language
proficiency are vital. For instance, hands-on (knowledge gained by actually doing something
rather than learning about it from books, lectures, etc.), materials including manipulatives ,
allow students to use all four language skills reading and listening as well as writing and
speaking.
 Once all the content and language objectives alongside with all the factors that help
achieve those objectives are fully set and geared, another not less important part of the
teaching process is in line. How to implement these components in class is the ultimate
section of the SIOP Model. First of all, the students must be aware and well informed of the
lesson’s content and language objectives. In order of them to focus on what is important in
terms of vocabulary and concepts. Second, already conscious of his or her students’ level, the
SI teacher moderates his pace as well as language level to reach both native speakers and
ELLs. At last, for an effective lesson delivery, the students have to be engaged throughout the
lesson via a number of techniques that ensures the lesson’s concepts and vocabulary are fully
grasped and perceived.

To check the teaching process success, the SI teacher resorts to a very important part
of the teaching process which is the reviewing of key concepts and vocabulary. On a periodic
basis, he uses a number of techniques that help the students consolidate their knowledge,
clarify any ambiguity whether it is related to language or content, and review the lesson’s
main objectives. The teacher provides them with his feedback on their output. To assess their
students acquired knowledge, teachers must create summative evaluations relevant to the
lessons objectives. This step tells the teacher to what extent did the students grasped the
content and language concepts. Based this assessment, the SI teacher build his instructions.
Most important, review and assessment guide teaching and re-teaching, inform decision
making, lead to supportive feedback, and provide for fair and comprehensive judgments about
the student performance (Echvarria,Vogt , & Short, 2010).Though it might look like if this
step is the last one in the SIOP mode, it is not. Because this model is more of cyclical process,
on the assessment results, the teacher starts new lessons and instruction. This teach, assess,
review, and re-teach process is cyclical and recursive (Echvarria,Vogt , & Short, 2010).

All the steps of the teaching process discussed in this paper demonstrate how the SIOP
Model is an integrated and comprehensive method of teaching. It covers all the features that
guaranty an effective learning process. It starts with an elaborative plan that states a set of
clear content and language objectives. The fulfillment of these objectives is supported by a
number of techniques, activities, and strategies focusing on the student’s improvement
especially ELLs. Taking into consideration his or her prior experiences and background. The
SI teacher encourage students put his acquired knowledge to practice, by providing ample
opportunities to use English in its different forms. The SIOP model ends with a review and
assessment of achievement of the lesson’s objectives and based on the results, the SI teacher
starts again with new lesson with adjusted objective to end up in a teaching assessing cycle.

1. Content and language are at the heart of the SIOP model.

One of the reasons behind the creation of the SIOP model is the difficulties faced by
the ELLs when learning content concepts in L2. When native students deal with only the
content concepts, ELLs rustle to understand content in a language they don’t fully master.
Therefore, such model as the SIOP is a salvation to these students because it provides a
teaching roadmap for teachers to reach the native students as well as students of diverse
backgrounds. Sheltered instruction sets a lesson design where content concepts and language
vocabulary simultaneously are at the heart of the SIOP model to ensure effective learning. All
the features and components have one ultimate objective which is the vocabulary growth and
content knowledge. These components emphasize the instructional practices that are critical
for second language learners as well as high-quality practices that benefit all students
(Echvarria,Vogt , & Short, 2010).

ELLs special characteristics such as the diverse educational, cultural, and linguistic
background affect the teaching process and calls for a special instructional design. The SIOP
model has proven to be the best choice so these learners are not left behind. It doesn’t only
recognize the students prior experiences it incorporates it in the lesson design to optimize the
learning process. Especially, that some of ELLs are already competent in the content concepts
in their native language. These students, on the one hand, are taken into consideration by the
SI by providing them with the necessary lesson designs that focus on their English to enable
them to reach higher language proficiency. On the other hand, ELLs who has poor content
and language abilities are included too. They benefit from the SI in different ways. They focus
on both content concepts and language proficiency.

Once they reach the language proficiency, ELs can perform as well as or even better
than native speakers. For this to happen, they need to be assisted to develop an academic
language, which means, the skills students need to be college and career ready are more
extensive than knowledge of vocabulary words and paragraph formation. They include
analytical reading and writing, effective communication and interaction, critical thinking, and
creativity. (Echevarria et al). Therefore, in the SIOP model, first language skills can be
transferred to second language, academic literacy in L1 accelerate academic literacy
development in L2, and for ELs to fully develop their English skills, they are provided
instructional accommodation, enhanced and explicit vocabulary.

In school, ELs need a high level of language mastery in each content area to be able
not only to learn and comprehend but also to apply and practice this knowledge. Such
language mastery includes, in the same time, reading and understanding textbooks, writing
about and discussing content concepts, and accomplishing assigned tasks. These three
knowledge bases—knowledge of English, knowledge of the content topic, and knowledge of
how the tasks are to be accomplished— constitute the major components of academic literacy
(Short, 2002). Researchers such as Bailey and Butler (2007) proved that content-specific
language such as technical terms, general academic language such as cross-curricular words
plus general academic tasks such as creating a timeline, and more specific subject
assignments such as explaining the steps to a certain solution, help achieving the desired
academic performance.

Unlike the content-based English as second language (ESL) which focus is on the
academic language development, the sheltered content instruction (SI) focuses on the
standards and topics. It merges, in the lesson design, the academic language as it is used in the
subject area. The SI teacher is a content certified and specialized training in sheltered
instruction and his/her students are a mixture of native speakers and ELs, and his/her main
aim is to help ELs to comprehend the content concepts by building their academic language
proficiency. A goal is to teach content to students learning English through a developmental
language approach. (Echevarria, et al….). Whereas the ESL is a bilingual certified, his/her
students are all ELs, and his/her objective is mainly English proficiency. They would thus
explore objectives from language arts, social studies, geography, and math. (Echevarria, et
al….)
2.4 SIOP Challenges

2.4.1 Introduction

Reducing the gap between the native speakers’ academic success and that of
the ELLs is what stimulated the SIOP’s elaboration. Its 8 components and 30 features all
together contribute in minimizing the ELs challenges while dealing with content curricular
topics. Both language and content teachers are provided with a number of strategies that
promote their teaching process. However, the effectiveness of the SIOP Model is
dependent on the school administrative and teachers’ involvement. And they face a
number of challenges; the hurdles confronting educators are a combination of social,
institutional and personal in nature, noting that all three of these facets are interrelated
(Khong et al., 2014)

2.4.1 The SIOP Model Implementation

As stated in chapter 1, ELLs have many unique characteristics; they are coming from
different socioeconomic backgrounds with different languages, families, cultures, and
educational backgrounds. On that account, to meet their academic as well as linguistic needs,
the SI teacher is required to make immense efforts. Teachers make the content understandable
using modeling, tutoring, multicultural content, and native language (Cisco & Pardon, 2012).
Therefore, some of them feel under a lot of pressure which affects their performance when
trying to implement the SIOP’s components. Although some of them welcome the challenge,
others feel underprepared to assist their EL students to access the content concepts.
Consequently, they end up giving up before trying.

Content teachers are not supposed to become grammar experts however they are
required to design language objectives as well as content ones. Plus prepare a lesson plan that
is designed to achieve these objectives. That is why; mainstream content teachers must be
provided adequate professional development that included differentiated instruction and
information regarding the acquisition of a second language (Hutchinson, 2013). This way they
will be more prepared to respond to their EL students’ needs. Hence more encouraged to
implement the SIOP Model.

2.4.2 The SIOP Model is Time and Money Consuming

The SIOP is a 30 feature model grouped under 8 components so it contains many steps
that leads to its full implementation. Although it illustrates an integral and comprehensive
teaching frame work, it might be a tow edge sword because many teachers simply did not feel
that they had the time for all the conferences needed and the additional lesson preparation
time. Some unions caused restrictions on the time needed for the teachers to implement the
SIOP model with true fidelity (Echevaria et al., 2006). Research review of the SIOP
 The practicing and pre-service teachers both might take a year to become an
effective SIOP teacher and a further one or two before teacher master all 30 features of the
model. Furthermore, Batt (2010) notes that traditional training may not be enough to
successfully implement the SIOP model. Institutions may need to spend additional time
and/or money to fully utilize the SIOP model. In that same study, Batt (2010) notes that
many schools, both within the United States and internationally, invest great amounts of
time, effort, and money on professional development in order to assist teachers in their
learning about research-based best practices for English learners (Batt, 2010). Research
review of the SIOP
Besides the training that requires time and money from both teachers and
administrations, there is the amount of time to dedicate to each one of the SIOP
components while preparing and delivering the lesson which can be overwhelming for the
teachers. Consequently, teachers some of them felt they did not receive enough
professional development to successful implement, so they simply gave up, many teachers
feel that they lack adequate training to work with ELL students lastly; some felt that there
should not be a differentiation in instruction (Reeves, 2006).

2.4.3 Teachers attitude toward the SIOP

Lai (2013) claimed that one of the most important elements in the process of
acquiring a second language was motivation, not only from the student, but also from the
educator. (Effectiveness and impact) hence, for the SIOP Model to be successfully
implemented, the teachers’ commitment is a must. Calderon (2014) concludes that teacher
outlook can indeed have a positive influence on the teacher commitment to the SIOP
model. The teachers that were not as positive towards the SIOP model did not implement
it as consistently. Those teachers with a more accepting attitude towards the SIOP model
“related a more positive and caring attitude along with a sturdy belief in their ability to be
a positive force in the life of their students” (Calderon et al., 2014, p. 29).

Calderon proceeds that there is an advantage to students taught by teachers with a

more positive attitude toward the SIOP model since their enthusiasm helps their students
be more successful (Calderon et al., 2014). Since he is motivated to dedicate whatever it
takes to make both the content curricular topics and related vocabulary more accessible to
his pupils especially the ELLs. This will bridge the gap between the native and non-native
students. Actually, the leading initiative that inspired Trevino-Calderon and Zamora to
conduct their study was the fact that 78% of students were able to obtain a high school
diploma in Texas, but only 39% of ELLs were able to attain this same goal. The extensive
review of literature pertaining to ELLs conducted by Trevino-Calderon and Zamora
(2014) included the consequences that under lied from an individual who failed to obtain
their high school diploma, which may have resulted in an estimate of $250 billion cost to
the federal government from missing salaries, lost tax revenue, and greater dependence on
social services (p. 21).(effectiveness and impact)